Canning Randy
Recap Ted begins the episode by giving a presentation about historical bridge collapses to his architecture class. As the camera pans down, he's shown wearing a hot-dog costume. He ends his lecture and wishes his students a Happy Halloween, throwing candy to each of them. They joke around, and one of his students asks if Ted will go out with them. However, Ted declines, saying he has another party to attend. Ted is now seen with the gang (minus Robin) at the Goliath National Bank Halloween office party. Ted (dressed as a hot-dog), Barney (dressed as Johnny Lawrence from ), Marshall (dressed as a bull) and Lily (dressed as a ) are in attendance. Randy Wharmpess enters and greets the gang, offering them some of his home-brewed beer (it turns out in the end that Randy's beer becomes really famous in America in the future). He asks about Robin's whereabouts, and starts to shout and leave when he hears she's at a different party. However, he decides to stay when Lily says she might arrive later. Randy asks if any of them are going to go see the Halloween parade. Future Ted narrates that they were big fans of the parade. Not the official parade in The Village, but the one that happens the next morning; The Annual Post-Halloween Walk of Shame parade. Ted, Marshall, and Barney all sit of the front steps of The apartment, drinking coffee, commenting on the different girls that walk by. Ted looks down the sidewalk, and sees Robin walking towards them, wearing a nurse costume. When she reaches the steps and sees the three men, she stops and swears. Later in MacLaren's, the gang try to find out who Robin hooked up with Halloween night. Ted hopes Robin didn't hook up with another of her co-anchors, until Robin reminds him her co-anchor is Becky, a woman. Barney then hopes that Robin did hook up with her co-anchor. Future Ted explains how Robin always tried to be an intelligent, hard-working professional, but Becky had a different philosophy, and recently starred in a boat commercial to promote her image. As a journalist, Robin believes that acting in a commercial is a bad decision and would stop people from taking her seriously, but is frustrated when her cameraman Mike loves Becky's commercial. Later on, when Ted walks into work at GNB, Zoey and a group of protestors are standing outside the building protesting the tearing down of the Arcadian to make way for the new GNB headquarters. Zoey and Ted argue, and Ted tells Zoey she knows nothing about architecture and walks inside. Future Ted explains that it was decisions like this that made GNB unpopular, so to increase their popularity each year they produced a "feel good" video to improve the bank's image. Barney, Randy, Arthur Hobbs, and Hobbs' dog Tugboat all appear in the video, reinforcing that Goliath National Bank cares about its customers, the Earth, old people and high-yield off shore investments. Barney tries to interview Marshall in his office for the video, but Marshall refuses. Randy enters the room, and Marshall asks why the Hermettson contracts never arrived at the downtown office. Randy thought Marshall wanted him to shred the documents, so he vows to fix the documents, taking Marshall's sticky-tape and runs from the room. Barney tells Marshall he should fire Randy for his incompetence, but Marshall says that that is exactly why he doesn't want to be in the video, because GNB doesn't actually care about people. Marshall recounts a story where Arthur fired another employee because he wore the same color tie as him. Marshall explains he doesn't want to treat people like they're disposable, and vows to Barney he will never fire anyone. Randy enters the room, showing that he's making progress on taping the shredded pieces together. To try and appease Marshall, he answers Marshall's phone for him, and inadvertently spills food on Marshall and knocks over different items on his desk. Meanwhile, Lily is busy interrogating Robin, trying to discover who she slept with. Since Robin won't give Lily a name, she realizes it must be someone they know, otherwise Robin would have no problems giving her the person's name. Ted is giving another lecture to his architecture students, and is shocked to find see Zoey in his class. As Ted pointed out to her, she didn't know anything about architecture, so she decided to join his class to learn more. In the process, she continually interrupts him, and reveals to the students that Ted is planning to destroy the Arcadian to make room for the new GNB headquarters. Back at MacLaren's, Ted reveals to Lily and Robin how he lost the respect of his students. Lily offers some advice on how she deals with troublesome students in her kindergarten class. She simply flashes the lights and mimics a car alarm, and all her students stop and quiet down. Barney and Marshall enter the bar, and Marshall explains how earlier at GNB, Randy entered with the completed Filbert contract. Marshall reminded him that he was supposed to be working on the Hermettson contract, so Randy shreds the Filbert contract. Marshall laments the loss of the contract, as he needed the Filbert contract. Fed up with Randy's incompetence, Marshall goes against his vow, and fires Randy. At MacLaren's, Barney pops some champagne to celebrate Marshall "popping his cherry" and firing Randy. Upon hearing Randy's name, Lily jumps up, claiming to know the identity of the person Robin slept with on Halloween: Randy. She then explains what she thinks happened: Upset that Becky was receiving so much attention from her boat commercial, Robin went to the GNB party after the gang left, vulnerable and drunk. When Robin saw Randy, they went home together. Robin confirms Lily's suspicions, admitting that she slept with Randy. Later that night, Marshall has a nightmare that Randy kills himself by jumping in his shredder because Marshall fired him. So, the next day he goes to his boss, Arthur Hobbs, and convinces him to rehire Randy. Back in Ted's classroom, Zoey has turned all Ted's students against him by telling them about the argument she and Ted had earlier. He tries to calm them down by offering them each a mix CD, but they continue to shout at him. Remembering Lily's advice, and realizing he has nothing to lose, he starts flashing the lights and mimics a car alarm. Later at MacLaren's, Ted tells Barney and Lily that, amazingly, it worked. Randy enters the bar, smiling, greeting the gang. Barney thinks the smile is because Randy killed Marshall, but Lily suspects it's because he slept with Robin on Halloween. However, Randy corrects her, explaining that he never slept with Robin. The reason he's smiling is because, with the severance check from getting fired, he can follow his passion and start his own brewery! Unfortunately, Marshall enters the bar and tells Randy he's no longer fired, causing Randy to break down in tears. Later, Ted enters his classroom, only to realize no-one is there; Zoey has convinced all his students to protest against the Arcadian's destruction with her outside GNB. In Marshall's office, Randy and Marshall are arguing over Randy's recent rehiring. Randy explains that he doesn't belong at GNB, that he should be a brewer. Marshall points out he can always quit and become a brewer, but if he does Randy won't receive the severance money he needs to start the brewery. Arthur enters, assuring Randy he'll never be fired again, and once he leaves, Marshall confirms that he'll never compromise his morals and fire anyone ever again. So, Randy tries to make Marshall fire him by messing up Marshall's desk and files and throwing drinks in his face. But no matter what he does, Marshall refuses to fire him. Ted calls Lily for advice again on how to make his students like him again, but Lily says he should embrace their hatred, because behind their hatred lies fear, and he can use that fear to control them. Ted calls Lily a psychopath, and hangs up. However, he decides to take her advice anyway, and tells his students if they're not in class tomorrow, they'll fail the course. Later that night at MacLaren's, Ted is telling Lily about what he said, when Robin enters. They confront her about her lie involving Randy, so she comes clean; she spent the day after Halloween starring in her own commercial, for adult diapers. Ted and Lily laugh and can't wait to see the ad, but Robin tells them they might not even use it, but Future Ted says that the ad ran for seven years. Back at Marshall's office, Randy apologises for trashing the office and hands Marshall one of his homemade beers, saying how making beer had always been his dream. Randy explains how that might sound stupid, since Marshall has already reached his dream of being a corporate lawyer. Marshall scoffs, surprised that Randy thought being a big, corporate lawyer really was his dream. Randy offers to clean up the office, and walks out of the room. Marshall takes a sip of beer and stops Randy, telling him his beer is delicious and then fires him. Afraid of failure, the next day Ted's entire class turns up to his lecture as Future Ted narrates how Randy took the severance money, started his brewery, and now sells Wharmpess beer in every bar in America. Proud of what he did, Marshall finally agrees to appear in GNB's feel good video, saying "I care about making dreams come true." Continuity *When Barney uncorks the wine bottle to celebrate Marshall firing Randy, Lily hides behind Marshall. Lily was previously accidentally hit in the eye by a champagne bottle cork in the by Marshall. *Marshall and Lily wear matching costumes at the GNB party, a matador and a bull. They previously dressed as a pirate and a parrot in , where a flashback reveals they also once dressed up as . *Randy mistakenly believes that being a corporate lawyer is Marshall's dream. His actual dream, being an environmental lawyer, was first mentioned in , as was his distaste for corporate law. *The car alarm noise Lily mimics to get Johnny to settle down is the same one that drives her and Robin crazy when they camped out for her wedding dress, along with all the other brides-to-be in line, as seen in . *Randy mentions that he suffers from nosebleeds when he gets an erection in . *Barney dresses as Johnny Lawrence from at the GNB Halloween party, whom he mentions admiring in . *Ted's desperation to have his students like him previously came up in and . *Ted hopes Robin isn't dating one of her co-anchors again, as she previously dated Don, from to . She also went on a date with her Metro News 1 co-anchor Sandy Rivers in , and she tells the story of her relationship with sports reporter Curt 'The Ironman' Irons in . **This is all in spite of Robin's policy against dating coworkers, which she mentions in and . *Lily asks Robin "where's the poop?", something she does when she knows someone is lying to her, as she explains in . *The problem student Lily tells Ted about, Johnny, was the one who ate the class goldfish, as mentioned in . *Marshall participates in his own "Walk of Shame" in . *Barney has much experience in—and seems to enjoy—firing people, as shown in . *Marshall denies Randy's statement that the former has "achieved his dream; big-time lawyer at a huge corporation". He has hated his job at GNB since being hired in . *This episode marks the last appearance of Randy. Future References (Contains Spoilers) *Randy's Wharmpess beers are seen again in and . * Becky's commercial is for the Farhampton Boat Show. Barney and Robin's wedding is revealed to take place at the Farhampton Inn in . *After seeing Becky's commercial, the gang begin referring to Becky as "Boats Boats Boats", as seen in and . *Barney eventually meets his childhood hero, William Zabka, in , and invites him to his wedding. Zabka also briefly replaces Ted as Barney's best man in . *Marshall quits GNB in . Gallery cnr1.jpg cnr2.jpg cnr3.jpg cnr4.png cnr5.png cnr6.png cnr7.png How-I-met-your-mother-halloween-episode-2.jpg Memorable Quotes Notes and Trivia Goofs and Errors *When Randy is in MacLaren's, discussing his plans with the severance money, the blood stream from Randy's nose switches nostrils from left to right to left. * Ted dresses as a hot dog for Halloween when he should be dressed as the Hanging chad in his ongoing attempt to reconnect with the Slutty Pumpkin. It's possible that, realizing how lame the Hanging chad costume is and wanting his students to like him, Ted chose the hot dog costume for work and later changed into the Hanging chad costume for his personal partying that evening. ** Ted may not have worn the Hanging chad costume because the Halloween party was at GNB and not on the roof of his apartment building where he first met the Slutty Pumpkin. * When Ted is flashing the lights in his classroom to regain control of his students, the lights flash on and off but he is obviously not moving the switch. * Zoey makes a recording onto her tape saying "key Ted Mosby's car". Ted however does not own a car. ** It's possible she wasn't aware of this, however. Allusions and Outside References *Lily decapitating the toy horse's head and placing it in Johnny's bed is a reference to scene where Don Corleone convinces Jack Woltz to cast Johnny Fontane in a film by placing the severed head of his prized stallion under his blood-soaked bedcovers. Also in that movie, oranges were often seen in connection with a character who would have a death or close call later in the movie; in his first appearance in this episode, Johnny drops an orange on the floor. *Lily says to Robin "Elementary, my dear Sherbatson", a reference to 's assistant Watson and Holmes's famous line *Barney's description of Robin as "Florence Nightinbedwithastranger" is a play on 's name. *Barney dresses as Johnny Lawrence from The Karate Kid'' at the GNB Halloween party. *Ted mentions the band and refers to the time when most media recording devices had a " " Music *The same song used when images of the official Halloween Parade are shown was used in the night club in . Other Notes *This episode was originally scheduled to air October 25, but was later pre-empted by "Baby Talk". It was also originally announced as having the title, "A 'Like Me' Story", but this was changed before broadcast, as well.http://www.spoilertv.com/2010/10/how-i-met-your-mother-episode-606-like_12.html *This episode has the first mention of Farhampton, a place that will become very relevant to how Ted meets the mother. *The music that plays during the scene showing the Halloween Parade is the same music that plays in the club in . *The scotch Barney pours himself at the GNB Halloween party is a real brand, a twelve-year-old Glenfiddich. *Prior to this episode, Becky constantly spoke in a baby voice. While she's still energetic, she has mysteriously dropped the childish voice in this and all future episodes which she appears. Guests * - Randy Wharmpess *Jennifer Morrison - Zoey Pierson *Bob Odenkirk - Arthur Hobbs *Laura Bell Bundy - Becky *Ron Nicolosi - Mike * - Scotty *Marieve Herington - Betty *Ashwyn Bagga - Johnny Podcast Featuring an interview with Carter Bays, Chuck Tatham and guest star, . Reception * This episode premiered to 8.877 million viewers. http://tvbythenumbers.com/2010/11/02/monday-finals-castle-adjusted-down-slightly-chuck-holds/70604 * Michaelangelo Matos at the gave the episode a B. http://www.avclub.com/articles/caning-randy,46873/ * DeAnn Welker at gave the episode a D. http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/how_i_met_your_mother/canning_randy_1.php * Robert Canning at gave the episode a 6.5 out of 10. http://au.tv.ign.com/articles/113/1131562p1.html * The ''St. Petersburg Comic Review gave this episode 6.5 out of 10 stars. "...Robin dressed as a nurse...and Randy's name on a microbrew!" References External Links * * * *''Canning Randy'' at CBS Press Express de:Wir kümmern uns Category:Episodes Category:Season 6 Category:Holiday episodes Category:Old episodes